Wednesday, March 20, 2024

The Melbourne Getaway ..... 50+F&H

 

I'm behind in my round up of February as I'd planned to wait till after my weekend down in Melbourne which started on the Thursday -2 days prior to the end of Feb.  After managing the 50+ F & H Group (which stood for 50 and over Fit and Healthy - now we are all 60+ lol) of girls for what will be 11 years in August - I organised a full weekend get together based in Melbourne for the Thursday to Sunday!  It took a few months to organise since we have ladies living all over Australia (and a couple that have since moved OS).  Originally I got the group together when I joined Michelle Bridges 12WBT and wondered if I was the only lady over 50 attempting the program??

Meeting each of the arrivals
 I had 107 other ladies join the facebook group I set up ..... slowly over the years the group has grown smaller, however the core group (I made it a closed group) have seen members go through Fires, Floods, Death of Spouses and sadly we have also lost a couple to sickness.  Ladies came from Qld, SA, Tas, Vic and NSW flying and training it in from various towns - We had a ball!!!  I did things I don't usually do when down in Melbourne (although I may just do some of them again lol) - It was a fabulous group of women, many meeting face to face for the first time, but just picking up like we have for the past 10 years!!!  I had some drink holders made to commemorate the event and one of the other girls (Chris) had made each of us a Mug rug   ....... and right at the end on the last day at breakfast they presented me with an amazing gift and a letter from Michelle Bridges - what a group!!!  Enjoy the photos - there a few lol!


Six of us arrived on the Thursday and after making sure we met each lady and dropped off the bags
at the hotel - Thankfully I'd booked us into the Southern Cross Hotel which is very close to the train station and where the sky bus arrives from the airport! Stacey met us to help us initially get orientated with the free tram area and to visit some of the shops ..... including the leggo shop which has the life size tram made from Leggo bricks that you can hop into to!! How cool is it lol

After a time of shopping, lunch at the old post office building and farewell to Stacey it was time to take a walk over the river and work out dinner and decide who was wanting to go to the sky deck at Eureka Tower.....





3 of us ended up going up the tower ..... Helen from SA and Kayleen from Townsville were super keen, so I tagged along with them and I'm really pleased I did!  The building is amazing as is the 360 degree views!  I loved the Bees featured on the outside of it as well ....... you can see them on the white section in this photo, but I needed to take a closer photo!













Then we decided to step out on the outside area which is caged and also has a double door to create a

managed air vacume between the inside and outside of the building.  It was super windy up there and we were laughing trying to get a photo without hair blowing in our faces lol  They have an area up there where you can purchase drinks and a bit of food - we decided to get a coffee and sat to watch the sun going down ..... unfortunately my phone didn't work taking those photos but it was amazing watching the sun disappearing from that height!   As soon as it was down we made the walk back to the hotel, stopping on the bridge over the Yarra to take a couple of photos with the night lights behind us ..... a lovely end to our first day!


Friday morning - another beautiful day for all the interstate visitors saw the other 4 ladies arrive at
various times throughout the day ...... Friday morning saw most of us head to the Southwharf DFO for various goodies and then after lunch we had 8 of us head off to the Botanical Gardens for the bus tour which was a bit of fun! (the other 2 ladies weren't scheduled to arrive until later in the arvo). We opted for a maxi taxi over there and decided to walk back to the City since most wanted to see Federation Square and the Iconic Flinders Street Railway Station.  We made quite the impact with the large group of us all walking along (continually counting heads to make sure nobody got lost lol)

Love this photo ....Helen, Me in the front taking the "selfie" with Bron on my other side in the white cap ; behind her right to left is Chris, Margaret, Sue and Anne in the Blue with Kayleen out the back.

Walking back past the Shrine and meeting up with the last 2 ladies for drinks and dinner.

Myself, Chris, Helen and Margaret in Fed Square

Saturday arrived and after breakfast at Federation square
 we decided to break into smaller groups for some city shopping/exploring .... another great photo on the way to breakfast with (Front to back) Anne, Helen, Chris, Julia and Kayleen checking out the artwork
We discovered a number of us shared a love of  various types of sewing and craftwork ..... we stopped in at Tessuti Fabrics and ended up in there for over an hour lol before heading the Yarn shop (which also had material which I may have purchased  some batiks for a jewel quilt after seeing the top that Helen had brought to show us all ........ I'll share it in another post ....... 

 before we knew it, it was time to meet back at Fed square for a 2hour cruise up and down the Yarra River




We all thoroughly enjoyed having the time to just sit and enjoy the relaxing ride up the river with drinks available if you wanted them and great commentry along the way!  I had no idea there were soooo many very old bridges across the Yarra and it was interesting learning so much about it! We had allowed for the 2 hour cruise ...... we hadn't allowed for it to run over time by over half an hour lol and you should have seen us rushing off that boat and almost running to try getting a tram - ensuring we had all 10 of us together - working out where we were gettting off and racing back to the hotel so we could quickly get changed ready for the big highlight ..... the Shows!
 
 

4 were going to Rocky Horror Show and the other 6 heading to Grease.  Since they were being shown in theatres not far from each other, Julia (who lives in Melbourne) had been great in organising the shows and dinner booking so we could all eat together, then head to the shows and meet back up afterwards!  The Spagettii Tree was the dinner venue and it was fabulous!





And just like that it was Sunday morning - our last breakfast before we all began heading off to our various buses and trains to head home!  What a fabulous time we had - and the girls surprised me Sunday morning with a little presentation ....... they had been in contact with Michelle Bridges (12WBT and also was on "The Biggest Looser") and she had written a letter to me thanking me for all the support I had shown this group of women over the past 10 + years and after discovering some of the things we had been doing for each other after being part of 12WBT she was inspired by us!  The girls had also been in touch with the rest of the group (all those unable to make the trip down) and I was given a $250 gift card to use for whatever I might decide to use it on!!!!  To say I was blown away was an understatement!  Thankyou to all who took part and a massive thankyou to the 9 ladies who met up with me for a weekend we will never forget!!!



Sunday, February 25, 2024

TA - DA- FINALLY!

Yes ........ Finally the top is finished on the "Down the Rabbit Hole" quilt!  

Started in 2017 as a block of the month project with Sarah Fielk - what I thought looked like a more


simplified pattern turned out to have ALOT more little bits and pieces than I had ever imagined!  It took me on a journey of learning to piece things differently, cut differently, learn to applique using a turn down method and many hundreds of small stitches, learn how to make bias binding - and that was just the first couple of months!!!  Trying to piece the houses nearly sent me round the twist lol and got me a couple of months behind while I struggled with them ....... 

Then it was time to pack up the house as we made the interstate move from Bundalong in Vic to Maryborough in Queensland.  Here a bit more work took place during that first year, but then it was packed up yet again to make the move to Hervey Bay where I don't remember if it even got unpacked since the house was smaller and Covid hit so I worked a bit from home in the "sewing room" (working full time and extra and ended up back in the hospital working through it all anyway), and we had Dad up a few times to recover from hospital  visits before we packed up yet again to sell in Hervey Bay and moved back to Maryborough ............ as you might know, a year later we packed up and sold Maryborough to move back down south across the river from Bundalong in Corowa!  Thank goodness we have been here 2 years already and so finally the sewing projects are finding their way out of boxes!!

Anyhow, since its such a huge quilt, and thankfully I had already purchased the batting and backing way back so I put it all together and have it pinned ready to begin the hand quilting part of this!!!  I've never hand quilted anything bigger than a cot size before so this should be very interesting!!!! Wish me luck as I work it out as I go ...................


I think the whole country knows that Taylor Swift had a concert in Melbourne lol ...... Our daughter in Law Renee and Granddaughter Jacey  flew down from Townsville to Melbourne to see it!  Renee's cousin and friend also were with them and looks like they had a fabulous time with great seats going by the photos!! We haven't seen them since Stacey and John were married back a couple of years ago and it would have been lovely to have caught up with them had we known they were there.  Jacey is certainly growing up ...... 15 years old already!  I'm hoping to get up to Townsville for her 16th birthday in October, but that will depend if they will be there for it as I think they are planning a holiday - possibly overseas which would be amazing!



Then we have the big gap with our new Granddaughter Mila just a couple of weeks old to our eldest son and his partner! I feel very blessed to be able to be part of little Mila's life, especially having her so very close - less than an hour away.   Finally the other day she was awake and had her eyes open long enough for me to be able to capture a couple of photos!  Such a little  sweetie 

I finally got around to getting another blog book made up whilst a special was on ...... usually they

come through when I'm too busy to be able to sit and see to it!  I had to pull out my first 2 books to check what date the 2nd book went up to so I had a starting point for this 3rd book and decided to take it up to when we sold Bundalong and had the move to Maryborough.  My blogging became quite sporadic during the time up there and first moving down here due to full time work up there and all the moving which might mean I only need 1 more book to bring me up to date.


Oh! And before I forget ....... whilst out the other day in a little township about 20mins away called Howlong ..... I remembered years ago heading into a little estate and finding a material outlet at a lady's home.  At the time she had the whole front lounge room and the entrance as her "shop" - very squishy and difficult so my friend and I never tended to go back ....... I was very curious though if perhaps she was still operating given there is no sewing shop in Corowa ..... As it turns out, not only is she still operating, but she has grown quite large and now has a separate building on her property out the front which has a lovely selection of goods, plus an area for sewing with others and a separate "class room " area  ...... needless to say, I will be going back lol  And right now, I'm off to go do some letter writing so I'll catch you all later !



Sunday, February 18, 2024

February Progress

 

With only 11 days to go till February comes to an end I thought I should share my progress ........ which has come along since the chaos of early February when so much was taking place ....... Dad turning 95, The sister & BIL over for the weekend from New Zealand, our little Granddaughter arriving (obviously the most exciting news!!) and a girls day out to Echuca!   But then I needed to get onto some sewing and knitting in particular!   Our daughter has a very good friend who is almost part of the family since they have known each other since they were 13 and Carly spent many, many days and nights at our place over the years, and even coming on camping holidays with us.  She was also one of Stacey's bridesmaids (but unfortunately due to lock down was unable to make it to the wedding - along with 2/3rds of the wedding party and guests!).  Carly and her partner are now expecting their own little bundle of joy so I've been busy trying to get a couple of things made for the baby shower being held in March.

Although Number 2 on my knitting list says socks ...... the No 1 had Baby Jumper✅  so that's now ticked off  instead lol.  The beanie was made in January and the yellow yarn worked well with the Ravelry Stash Buster Challenge✅ ...... White is the February Colour for the Rav Colour Stash Buster✅


And onto the sewing .........  Whilst Number 2 on the list is the Eye Spy Quilt to get started ..... that


may yet happen but I'm not in a great hurry as I plan to make it as a Christmas Gift for Mila - so lots of time left to work on it yet!   Instead I decided to make a little pram quilt  and made it reversable so she can use it whichever way she likes ........ I had made a start on this on a previous post when I was working on the back of it using neutral colours ........
 then last weekend I chose the pastel type colours for the "front" and during the week and  FNSI and yesterday have managed to get it sewn up, quilted and the binding sewn down!  So I'm super happy with this being finished so quickly!!  Here is the finished Front
And the "Back"  ✅

I've also been making more progress on Down the Rabbit Hole with 3 of the corners now Appliqued and hand stitched ...... so just 1 more to go and it will finally be reading for the backing and the quilting process!


But wait ....... there is more!!!  Just a tiny bit ...... one more bird has been made following the colours for RCH  - meaning I have the 2 Green Birds for January, but yet to make the February colours which are Red!

And then I came across some woollen blanketing material which is just the right size for a little

winter pram blanket for Mila since it gets quite cold down here in Winter ....... I've started working out a bit of an idea and begun a bit of woollen embroidery on it so we shall see how that begins to take shape over the next few weeks or so ......  And that's pretty much a wrap for so far in February!